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Legal changes: Law 4046/2012 was adopted in February 2012 and determines that from April 2013 "until the completion of the fiscal adjustment programme" the minimum wage will be reduced by 22 per cent in general and by 32 per cent for young people under 25 years of age. Law 4093/2012 provides that the marriage bonus (10 per cent) contained in the national collective labour agreement will no longer be included in the minimum wage.

Interference in strike action: In February 2013, the government invoked emergency laws to force striking seamen back to work. Seamen were demanding more than six months' worth of pay arrears and the signing of collective agreements with the ferry companies. Thousands of demonstrators converged on the country's largest port to protest against the order, while the country's two main unions declared a day-long regional strike in the greater Athens area in solidarity with the seamen.

In January 2013, the government forced an end to a nine day transport strike. The union representing the Athens' metro workers called the strike in opposition to wage reductions which were demanded by the Troika (European Commission, IMF, European Central Bank). Other transport workers joined the strike before the government used the threat of mass arrests and police units to force people back to work. The metro workers began the strike in opposition to plans to bring them under a civil service wage structure.